Google to censor torrent searches

Search engine outfitGoogle has decided to start censoring searches so that they do not offend the music and film industry.

The outfit is going to stop allowing its search engine to find torrent sites and places that might be distributing pirated content.

Google has announced an updated copyright plan and promised to respond to takedown requests in a more timely manner and focus more intensely on expelling infringing content from its products.

Writing in his bog, Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said that Google had seen a growing number of problems relating to infringing content.

As the web has grown, the number of requests grows with it, we are working to develop new ways to better address the underlying problem.

Google has promised to act on copyright takedown requests within 24 hours. As part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), content hosting sites like YouTube are generally not held responsible for infringing material on their sites if they respond promptly to takedown requests.

Google said it will build tools to improve the submission process to make it easier for people to file these DMCA takedown requests.

Google also pledged to improve its “counter notice” tools, for people who think their content was wrongly removed.

It will not include search terms closely associated with piracy from appearing via autocomplete. While it is difficult to work out what terms are being used to find infringing content, Google has promised to try to prevent Autocomplete from displaying the terms most frequently used for that purpose, said Walker.

Google already bans AdSense on Web sites with pirated content, but will now step up its effort to identify violations.

Not surprisingly the The Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America praised Google for changing its search algorithm to “prevent bad actors from gaming the system”. We guess that means that you will not find another Megan Fox flick online.